Good evening. Let me wish everyone a happy and successful 2019. 1
January is School Board Recognition Month in New Jersey, and I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your service to your communities and our public school students. Back in 2003, NJSBA instituted School Board Recognition Month. Since then, the governor has issued a proclamation recognizing the work of local boards of education every January. In addition, the State Board of Education has conducted an annual School Board Recognition Month ceremony. At the State Board’s January 2 nd meeting, President Dan and I accepted a resolution honoring New Jersey’s 5,000 board of 2
education members. It was especially gratifying to hear the praise for our Association from State Board Vice President Kathy Goldenberg, a former member of the Moorestown Board of Education, and Sylvia Sylvia-Cioffi, another state board member, who served on the Ocean Township board in Monmouth County. Our Communications staff has developed a special resource page on our website for school and community groups that want to recognize the work of their local boards of education. This year, we added a new component to our School Board Recognition Month efforts: a video message, which we have distributed through School Board Notes, our website, and our social media outlets. Let me show it to you now. ( The video is on the next slide. When Billie clicks the image, the video will play. ) 2
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Kudos to Ray Pinney and our videographer, Robin Kampf. This month also marks the start of the second year of our Strategic Plan, which was approved by the Board of Directors in November 2017. I’d like to provide a brief summary of the progress we’ve made in the plan’s give goal areas, which are listed on the screen. 4
I’ve said it many times before: Every decision we make as school board members must have one overriding consideration—the advancement of student achievement. Our Strategic Plan’s first goal—”Student Growth, Learning, Well- Being and Success”—reflects that principle. Two of our current projects, the Equity Council and the Task Force on Mental Health Services in the Public Schools, fall within this goal area. 5
The Equity Council consists of board members and experts in various fields. They will advise the Association and local school boards on research and best practices in curriculum, educational opportunity, school climate, policy and other areas. On December 10 th , approximately 20 people participated in the Equity Council meeting. We discussed issues of fairness and justice for students. Going forward, we plan to feature occasional articles about equity issues and resources for our members in School Board Notes. Dr. Penelope Lattimer of the Rutgers Institute for Improving Student Achievement is chairing the Council. Dr. Lattimer has been active in many NJSBA projects, including the Task Force on Student Achievement. One of our major goals for this current school year is the completion of a report on Mental Health Services in the Public Schools. At the December task force meeting, we heard from Dr. Maurice Elias, director of the Rutgers University Social-Emotional Character Development Laboratory. Dr. Elias is one of the nation’s leading experts on school climate. The Task Force is scheduled to issue its final report by June. 5
This goal area also involves strengthening relationships with like- minded organizations to provide professional development and resources on equity, school climate, social-emotional learning and related issues. The Final Report on Educational Opportunities for the Non-College- Bound Learner, which was issued in October, is another Strategic Plan activity. To raise awareness of the task force’s findings and recommendations, we are engaging educational, government and business organizations—including the New Jersey Council of County Vocational-Technical Schools. We held a second meeting with the group on Monday. President Dan will provide more details in his report. 5
NJSBA’s mission as the major resource on school district governance is the focus of the Strategic Plan’s second goal area, Direct and Support Services. Related activities include expanding remote participation in Association meetings and events. Tonight, for example, we have members participating via WebEx. In November, I reported that WebEx has been used for over 300 Association meetings, conferences and other functions. In fact, it has become a regular part of our services. 6
As you know, our WebEx capability, which was implemented in May, is the result of an in-kind donation from Cisco Systems. As you may recall, this is the largest contribution received by our Association during its 105-year history, and it reduced the out-of-pocket expenditures needed to achieve our long-range Information Technology goals. Expanding information through our BlogTalkRadio and Education Matters video program is another activity related to the Strategic Plan. As a result, we have produced an eight-part video series on school security, along with a host of podcasts on critical issues, such as sexual harassment, the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision, school funding and regionalization. A review of all of our non-periodical publications is also part of the plan. And this year, we are focusing our attention on Basic School Law , the most successful volume in our School Library Series. There is a strong demand for the publication among school board members, school administrators and board attorneys, as well as colleges and universities. We are on schedule to have the new book on the market by the spring. 6
Our focus on the third goal area, Advocating for Public Education, continues through the county school boards associations, the Legislative Committee and, of course, the hard work of our Governmental Relations team. The Legislative Committee has brought in speakers, including Deborah Rigsby, director of federal advocacy for the National School Boards Association (via WebEx, by the way), and Mark Magyar, policy director for Senate President Steve Sweeney. Here again, relationships are critical. These relationships include our 7
partnership with the New Jersey PTA which, of course, represents parents, a group that I often refer to as our natural allies. Ray Pinney and I meet with the PTA leadership monthly. This year we will again co-sponsor our Annual Legislative Day with the NJPTA. The event will take place on Thursday, May 16 th at the War Memorial in Trenton. So, please save the date. The Strategic Plan also calls for us to develop and maintain relationships with new staff at the Department of Education and members of the State Board of Education. On Wednesday, President Dan and I welcomed Commissioner of Education Lamont Repollet and members of his senior staff to Association headquarters. Vince DeLucia and Patty Maillet also took part in the meeting. We discussed current partnerships with the NJDOE, including Future Ready Schools–New Jersey, the department’s participation in Workshop, and other activities. And we are exploring additional avenues of collaboration. 7
Training is the heart of NJSBA. And that is the subject of the fourth goal area, “Developing New Jersey’s School Board Members.” Over the past year, we instituted a new, successful leadership weekend, GPS for Visionary Leadership. And like our New Board Member Orientation weekends, it is funded through a grant from corporate New Jersey, in this case, $50,000. This year’s leadership weekend is scheduled for the first weekend in May. A theme throughout the Strategic Plan involves building upon existing online programming and in-person training. 8
• In 2018, we provided close to 500 board members with training through webinars on topics such as labor negotiations, due process and superintendent evaluations. • New Board Member Academy training included programs on school funding, special education, and cyber-security. • And our I-STEAM programming has been expanded. Much of our I-STEAM training and consultation is conducted in partnership with the U.S. Army, with the assistance of our STEAM education fellow, who is placed on our staff by the Army at no cost to the Association. Currently, we are exploring the opportunity to establish a similar partnership with the U.S. Air Force. Yesterday, I met with Col. Ryan Marshall, wing commander of the Air Force 621 st Response Wing at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. We discussed the possibility of a partnership to promote STEAM education. We plan to continue the discussion in April. I want to thank Past President John Bulina, an honorary commander at the Joint Base for making yesterday’s meeting possible. In December, through the 8
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